The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
A document-processing device is any device that processes either a printed copy of a document or an electronic copy of a document. A document-processing device may produce a printed copy of a document based on either an electronic copy of the document or another printed copy of the document. A document-processing device may also produce an electronic copy of a document based on either another electronic copy of the document or a printed copy of the document. Non-limiting, illustrative examples of a document-processing device include a printer, a scanner, a facsimile machine, a copier, and a multi-function peripheral (MFP).
In certain environments in which a document-processing device may be used, ensuring a certain level of security may be required or at least desirable. For example, the document-processing device may process documents containing sensitive information whose access needs to be restricted. The document-processing device may also be deployed in an environment in which it is desirable to monitor the activities of how the document-processing device is used as well as to verify that certain activities took place.